Beating Naxxramas on a budget: A guide to heroic Plague Quarter

Click here for a budget guide to heroic Arachnid Quarter

We're in the second week of Curse of Naxxramas and hopefully you've cleared the Arachnid Quarter on normal and heroic. Hopefully, you've also managed to bypass all the problems with purchasing the Plague Quarter and now you're ready to fight Noth, Heigan and Loatheb in these new challenges.

This guide offers several budget decks of different classes you can use to clear the second wing on heroic mode. You won't need any legendaries but you might need to craft some epic cards if you decide to go for a Freeze Mage for the first two fights. 

Boss decklists are courtesy of Hearthpwn

Minions (22):

2x [card]Undertaker[/card]
2x [card]Unstable Ghoul[/card]
1x [card]Bloodmage Thalnos[/card]
2x [card]Mad Scientist[/card]
1x [card]Crazed Alchemist[/card]
1x [card]Acolyte of Pain[/card]
1x [card]Flesheating Ghoul[/card]
1x [card]Cult Master[/card]
1x Necroknight
1x [card]Abomination[/card]
1x [card]Spectral Knight[/card]

 

Spells (7)

1x [card]Mortal Coil[/card]
2x [card]Counterspell[/card]
2x [card]Duplicate[/card]
2x Plague

The fight in short:
 

• Don't play minions which die easily. This will give Noth 5/5 Skeletons. You don't want that
• Extract maximum value out of a single creature - buff it, heal it, etc.
• Don't over-populate the board or you will die to Plague
• Removal is your friends. Plague is Noth's only direct removal so eliminating his minions is the best way to make sure that yours don't die in turn

Noth the Plaguebringer is a Naxxramas with a unique hero power. The "Raise Dead" passive allows him to turn your dead minions into his Skeleton servants to turn the tides of the battle in his favor.

This is by far the hardest element of Noth's boss fight as otherwise his deck of cards is not what you'd call spectacular. Noth runs a lot of one-ofs which he multiplies through Duplicate but the minions he casts are fairly weak and easy to deal with. The toughest punchers are his single Necroknight (4 mana, 5/6) and Spectral Knight (5 mana, 4/6, immune to hero powers and spells) but as long as they're not Duplicated, the fight for board control is winnable. 

In the spell department, Noth runs double Counterspell and double Duplicate which totals to 100% of his secrets. There's a single Mortal Coil that you shouldn't really care about. What you should care about is the two copies of Plague, which destroy all non-Skeleton minions and is Noth's primary win condition. Combined with his hero power, a sweep of a board with more than two minions means game most of the time.

As a result of the aforementioned Noth mechanics, you should approach the fight with a control deck, one that runs fat minions able to trade with Noth's board without dying as well as one featuring lots of removals (so you don't have to trade with minions in the first place).

There are several classes able to do so. Players with richer collections should look at building a Freeze Mage deck (one such is displayed below for the Heigan boss fight) and just keep a clean board until they can Alexstrasza Noth into a lethal burst. 

For players without all the cards, however, Priest and Druid are two very good options. Priest decks rely on Healing Touch to heal up the minions they are trading with, thus never losing them and giving Noth any Skeletons. Druids, on the other hand, stack their low end of the mana curve with removal and ramp spells and aim to survive till their fat late-game with Ironbark Protectors, Sunwalkers, Boulderfist Ogres and Lords of the Arena. 

Minions (21):

2x Deathcharger
3x [card]Voidwalker[/card]
2x [card]Flame Imp[/card]
2x [card]Blood Imp[/card]
2x [card]Acidic Swamp Ooze[/card]
1x [card]Felguard[/card]
3x [card]Voidcaller[/card]
2x [card]Faceless Manipulator[/card]
3x [card]Doomguard[/card]
1x [card]Dread Infernal[/card]
 

Spells (10)

2x [card]Soulfire[/card]
3x [card]Demonfire[/card]
3x Mindpocalypse
2x [card]Bane of Doom[/card]

The fight in short:
 

• Heigan starts with a [card]Voidcaller[/card] on the field
• He plays a Zoo deck with a free removal on a stick
• Eruption is an auto-cast, play around it by placing fat minions on the left or using Nerubian Eggs to turn a disadvantage into an advantage
• You can't outrace him, so control him

Sick of facing Zoo on the ladder? Too bad, because here's another one, this time with even more frustrating cards and mechanics to deal with.

Not only can Heigan clean low-health minions for free through his Eurption, he also starts the fight very aggressively. When you face him, he'll already have a Voidcaller on the field waiting and he'll follow it with Coin into two 1-drops like Flame Imp, Voidwalker or Deathcharger, an Acidic Swamp Ooze or even Demonfire said Voidcaller.

Having 3x Voidcallers allows Heigan to cheat around the drawbacks that many of his Demon cards have. He has 3x Doomguards ready to charge out upon Voidcaller's deathrattle or that very annoying Felguard who's so difficult to deal with.

Just like the Noth fight, you have to approach Heigan with a control deck. Outracing him is impossible because weak minions don't live longer than a turn and Heigan has more health than your character to begin with. 

Warlock actually has some very good ways to deal with Heigan's antics. Sacrifical Pact is great because most of Heigan's minions are Demons and the becomes a great tempo card. Drain Life, Shadow Bolt and Soulfire are six more removal cards to deal with the early pressure. 

Once you have Heigan's minions under control, you can start playing yours. Nerubian Egg, Gurubashi Berserker and Haunted Creeper can turn Eruption against Heigan. Stoneskin Gargoyle can absorb the damage and heal it back up. The taunters have lots of health and can hold the front. It's just a solid control deck, specifically aimed to combat what Heigan has.

Another option is to go for a Freeze Mage and dish out AoE removals until Heigan runs out of steam. The first few turns are going to be a nightmare but the longer the fight goes, the more option you'll have to stabilize. Heigan's AI is not exactly top-notch so he might fall into a Doomsayer trap and lose more than necessary. The deck on the right is a budget version (well, except for the six epics...) of the standard Freeze Mage which uses Boulderfist Ogres as finishers and Sludge Belchers as something to soak up Eruptions and minion attacks. If you have Alexstrasza - shove it in.

Minions (19):

2x Deathcharger
1x [card]Leper Gnome[/card]
2x [card]Acidic Swamp Ooze[/card]
2x [card]Unstable Ghoul[/card]
2x [card]Dancing Swords[/card]
3x [card]Shade of Naxxramas[/card]
2x [card]Flesheating Ghoul[/card]
2x [card]Faceless Manipulator[/card]
1x [card]Fen Creeper[/card]
2x [card]Spectral Knight[/card]
 

Spells (10)

3x Sporeburst
5x Deathbloom
2x [card]Poison Seeds[/card]
 

The fight in short:
 

• Find an efficient way to deal with his starting [card]Fen Creeper[/card]
• Maximize the Spore bonuses - have as many minions on the field as possible when you kill them
• Go into the either extreme - fast rush down face Hunter or healing control decks like Warrior or Priest
• You can't use [card]Alexstrasza[/card]

The Loatheb fight is, simply put, a race again against the clock. Every turn, he will deal you 3 damage for free with his Necrotic Aura which means that you have two options - out-heal it, or out-race it.

The most irritating thing about Loatheb by far is the Fen Creeper he has on the board from the start of the game. A 3/6 for 0 mana essentially, the Creeper is a nightmare to deal with, meaning Loatheb will hit you for at least 6 on his first turn and even more if he has his Deathchargers in hand, to a maximum of 10 damage on T1. At this point, you should better concede than waste valuable time.

In addition to his strong opening and value hero power, Loatheb runs a deck filled with great minions so you can't really ignore his board. The Shades of Naxxramas have to be dealth with immediately or they snowball out of control, while the Spectral Knights are always a pain in the ass - having an immune to spells 4/6 is not something control decks want to see in play. There are also two copies of Dancing Swords who also hit hard and drawing a card from their deathrattle is rarely game-turning.

To put it shortly, this fight would be unwinnable if it wasn't for the Spores. A 0/1 minion spawned from Loatheb's signature spells, the Spores give your minions a permanent +8 attack, making it possible for you to beat Loatheb down before his Necrotic Aura melts you down. Maximizing the effect of these Spores is a key element to winning the encounter.

As we already mentioned, there are two ways to deal with Loatheb. On the one extreme, we have a full face Hunter deck, relying on Spored-up Unleash the Hounds. 9/1 Hounds will finish the game quick if unchecked and can easily beat the Necrotic Aura clock, even with the lack of heal in Hunters. As the Fen Creeper is a priority target early on, dig for a Hunter's Mark and a charging minion/Arcane Shot to free the way.

Option #2 is going full control with either of the two healing classes. Rich Hearthstone players can use their collections to build a standard control Warrior with double Armorsmith, all the removal and taunters like Shieldmasta and Slugebelcher. Armor Up will mitigate the Necrotic Aura damage while the removal spells will keep Loatheb's board in check. Opening hand Execute is needed for the Fen Creeper.

Unlike Warriors, Priests are more easily built on a budget (see on the right) and they play in a similar way. Farseers, Voodoo Doctors and Lightwells are there to counter the Necrotic Aura. Ironforge Riflemen and Elven Archers snipe the Spores. SW: Pain kills the starting Fen Creeper. Raging Worgens hit for 22 if Spore'd and enraged.